Jesus Camp
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 22, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 28 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The fact that Pastor Fischer would probably consider the film an accurate portrayal of her mission may be the most terrifying thing of all. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyScott Brown
As a documentary, Jesus Camp could lose its haunted-house score and contrapuntal Air America refrains and still deliver its message: that, here and elsewhere, fundamentalism is no longer content with a separate peace. It wants the meat. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It makes an unsettling case that America is fast becoming the thing it professes to hate. Read full review
83
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
This team has succeeded at making a film that opens a subculture without programming our responses to it. Read full review
80
EmpireOwen Williams
Funny, sad and horrifying. Anti-fundamentalist rather than anti-Christian, this deserves to preach to more than just the converted. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarrit Ingman
It's a call to arms, a call to pick sides in the deepening cultural, political, and spiritual schism between the two Americas of the 21st century. Read full review
75
PremiereSara Brady
Doesn't function particularly well as a documentary; it lacks a strong editorial point of view and doesn't really comment on the evangelical movement so much as it just portrays a selection of people and their views. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
What most interests the directors is the way young minds are shaped by adults with clear moral and political agendas. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
What Ewing and Grady have accomplished here is remarkable--capturing the visceral humanity, desire and unflagging political will of a religious movement. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleNeva Chonin
At heart, all documentaries aim to be important films. Few actually pull it off. Minor flaws and all, Jesus Camp is among the year's most important films, if only because it forces us to learn about an America we seldom see and seldom want to see. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Jesus Camp is not a "hatchet job." The filmmakers did not go in with an anti-Christian agenda and use selective editing to prove their point. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
I felt depressed when I realized all 87 minutes had passed without one word about forgiving sin or reaching out to the image of God in neighbors who don't think as you do. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
It's almost impossible not to respond emotionally to this fascinating, sobering and all-too-brief exploration of the politicized religious right and its hopes, dreams and power. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Cinematic dynamite. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
A fascinating glimpse of kids' role in the evangelical movement's political agenda. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Jesus Camp doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive survey of the charismatic-evangelical phenomenon. It offers no history or sociology and only scattered statistics about its growth. It analyzes the political agenda only glancingly, centering on abortion but not on homosexuality or other items. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Whether you are a religious, churchgoing person or not, if you are the least bit liberal or tolerant in your world view, this has got to be one of the most unnerving films of the year. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
If we are in the midst of a culture war, as many people proclaim in Jesus Camp, then the left should be concerned. The right's Christian soldiers appear to be extremely well trained. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
A frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right. Read full review
60
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Often funny (just listen to Becky fulminate against Harry Potter), but it's also a scary. Read full review
60
Film ThreatKJ Doughton
Jesus Camp works nicely as a time-capsule document confirming the impact -- and popularity -- of American evangelism. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Why do Ewing and Grady feel the need to tip their hand by underscoring it all with creepy ambient music or by using Air America host Mike Papantonio as a Greek Chorus expressing the voice of reason? Read full review
58
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
By gilding the lily so shamelessly, Ewing and Grady guarantee they'll preach only to the converted. Read full review
50
VarietyRonnie Scheib
May shock many viewers, especially political liberals. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
It's a glimpse into a world most secular, metropolitan liberals never see, and it's likely to induce howls of both terror and hilarity from big-city audiences. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Hamstrung by its polemics. Read full review
30
Village VoiceRob Nelson
The doc these kids would make with flea market camcorders couldn't possibly be as ugly as this absurdly hypocritical critique of the far right's role in escalating the culture war. The classier indoctrination to which Gap-shopping urban Democrats subject their kids might look damn spooky, too, but it probably wouldn't sell. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A snapshot, to be sure, but scattershot as well.
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